Virtuoso Voices(tm)

Series produced by Listener Directed Productions, Inc.

Series image

Virtuoso Voices is a collection of timely and topical sound bites from classical music's leading performers. Each sound bite (or clip) will bring your listeners an insider's perspective to the classical music they enjoy on your station. Virtuoso Voices offers classical music announcers an additional way to enhance their breaks by using the voice of the artist whose recording they're about to play on their shift.

Virtuoso Voices is an interview clip service for classical music stations, presenting today's most influential classical music performers, conductors and composers talking in 20 to 35 second clips.

These topical and evergreen sound bites will enable announcers to bring an additional insider's perspective to the music they play on their shifts.

For example, an announcer playing Joshua Bell's recent recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto could introduce it by using a clip of Mr. Bell talking about how he tries to bring a fresh sound to this very familiar work. After the clip, the announcer returns and segues into playing the recording.

The Virtuoso Voices service provides you a Suggested Host Intro to effectively set up each clip, and includes a brief Outro to help you segue to the music. Your announcers can use this copy verbatim, or as inspiration to write their own version.

Virtuoso Voices clips are versatile. In addition to music intros, you can also use them to enhance forward promotion, create compelling billboards and create content for your website.

Virtuoso Voices provides stations with a new strategy for presenting classical music on the radio by directly involving the performer in the introduction of the music. These topical and evergreen clips enable announcers to bring an additional insider's perspective to the music they introduce and play on their shifts.

Program content is taken from interviews with internationally recognized classical music performers, such as Gil Shaham, Yo-Yo Ma, Marin Alsop, Lorin Maazel, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn and Michael Tilson Thomas.

As of January 2010, we are offering our Virtuoso Voices Performer Clips to all stations for free. We offer three types of distribution.

-- Downloaded off our ftp site: no charge

-- Downloaded from PRX: (triple PRX points) – requires PRX station membership

-- 10 months a year, receive a CD: $100 flat fee to cover postage and handling for the year.

For more information and to see additional ways to use these clips, please visit our website, www.virtuosovoices.org.

Signing up is easy and free. To receive a short subscription form, please send an email to info (at) listenerdirect.org or call (703) 751-0342.

Virtuoso Voices™ Fundraising Service

Virtuoso Voices(tm) is also Public Radio's primary source for classical music fundraising messages.

Twice a year, we provide your station with three types of fundraising messages, with options enabling you to customize each spot to the specific sound and fundraising terminology of your station. These messages, from performers like Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sarah Chang and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, follow Public Radio's Best Practices for fundraising.

These produced fundraising messages are distributed in February and September in advance of when most stations fundraise, including the nationally coordinated drives. Stations may request custom fundraising scripts read by the performers we interview. We fill these requests whenever possible and in the order in which they are received.

Our Virtuoso Voices fundraising material is offered as a separate subscription, with fees based on market size (as determined by Arbitron) – and cover a portion of the production expenses for Virtuoso Voices.

This service includes a (minimum) of 40 fundraising messages – a combination of Custom Station Spots, Straight Read Spots, Produced Funders and Unhosted Produced Funders

-- $500 for stations with a market ranking of 1 to 50;
-- $325 for stations ranked between 51-150;
-- $150 for stations with an Arbitron market ranking of 151 and above.

Please visit the fundraising page of our website for further examples and further information. www.virtuosovoices.org/fundraising.

VIRTUOSO VOICES

"Classical Music's Virtuosos Want a Word with Your Listeners."

Virtuoso Voices is a trademark of Listener Directed Productions, Inc. Hide full description

Virtuoso Voices is an interview clip service for classical music stations, presenting today's most influential classical music performers, conductors and composers talking in 20 to 35 second clips. These topical and evergreen sound bites will enable announcers to bring an additional insider's perspective to the music they play on their shifts. For example, an announcer playing Joshua Bell's recent recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto could introduce it by using a clip of Mr. Bell talking about how he tries to bring a fresh sound to this very familiar work. After the clip, the announcer returns and segues into playing the recording. The Virtuoso Voices service provides you a Suggested Host Intro to effectively set up each clip, and includes a brief Outro to help you segue... Show full description


Additional Files

642 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Menahem Pressler
In his 60 plus years of playing chamber music, pianist Menahem Pressler has seen just about everything – including a point in time when chamber mus...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :24
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Menahem Pressler
Pianist Menahem Pressler spent 53 years as the pianist of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio. He could easily have taken the soloist route, giving reci...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :23
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Menahem Pressler
The Beaux Arts Trio was widely recognized for consistently reaching and upholding the highest musical standards. But there were times when they di...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :27
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Mark Elder, Credit: Shelia Rock
To clap or not to clap – that's the concert hall debate that continues to rage in various circles. In Beethoven and Mozart's day, applauding was w...

  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :23
Caption: Mark Elder, Credit: Shelia Rock
Where will we find the next generation of classical music listeners and classical music fans? Conductor Mark Elder says they're in school right no...

  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :25
Caption: Mark Elder, Credit: Shelia Rock
One thing you might notice in conductor Mark Elder’s recordings of British music is his choice of tempo. By British and recording standards, they ...

  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :27
Caption: Mark Elder, Credit: Shelia Rock
Claude Debussy's music helped define the impressionist movement in music. The fuzzy borders and pastel swashes of color that Monet and Cezanne bro...

  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :24
Caption: Lynn Harrell, Credit: Christian Steiner
In music, and music schools worldwide, the teacher - student relationship can be a somewhat complicated matter. The traditional view is that the s...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :31
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Lynn Harrell, Credit: Christian Steiner
The impressionist movement in music began in France during the late nineteenth century. Composers like Debussy rebelled against what they consider...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :22
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Lynn Harrell, Credit: Christian Steiner
While most musicians genuinely believe their instrument is the closest sounding to the human voice, cellist Lynn Harrell makes a pretty convincing ...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :23
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Lynn Harrell, Credit: Christian Steiner
Cellist Lynn Harrell has played the Dvorak Cello Concerto throughout his career, and it's a work he continues to study. Before the cello's first e...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :24
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Danielle de Niese, Credit: hansspeekenbrink-nl
Opera singers today are being asked to do more, and are expected to do more on the operatic stage – especially when it comes to showing their actin...

  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :25
Caption: Danielle de Niese, Credit: hansspeekenbrink-nl
The career of soprano Danielle de Niese really took off when she performed the role of Cleopatra in the Handel opera, Julius Caesar. Her operatic ...

  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :25
Caption: Danielle de Niese, Credit: hansspeekenbrink-nl
You may have heard about a situation involving a famous soprano who, despite the impeccability of her singing and artistry, was fired by an opera c...

  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :25
Caption: Lynn Harrell, Credit: Christian Steiner
Beethoven was one of the first composers to demonstrate the cello's wide range of expressive capabilities. But there was one characteristic Beetho...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :26
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Mark Elder, Credit: Shelia Rock
When British conductor Mark Elder wants to give his orchestra some directions for tempo and inflection, his native language falls short... especial...

  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :24
Caption: Menahem Pressler
How do you keep the music you’ve played hundreds of times fresh for the next audience? That's the age old question for all musicians. Pianist Men...

Bought by BYUradio/KUMT/KBYU-FM


  • Added: Mar 31, 2010
  • Length: :26
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: Yuja Wang
The Piano Sonata No 2 by Chopin is best known for the funeral march in the third movement. That march has been immortalized from its appearances i...

  • Added: Feb 26, 2010
  • Length: :23
Caption: Hilary Hahn
Violinist Hilary Hahn has been playing Bach throughout her career, and her most recent recording is an all-Bach CD. She says you can find many sid...

  • Added: Feb 26, 2010
  • Length: :20
Caption: Hilary Hahn
There's a lot going on in Bach – beautiful melodies, complex, and at times conflicting harmonies and intricate rhythms – all happening simultaneous...

  • Added: Feb 26, 2010
  • Length: :26